Getting Down Again
by fantasdancer
Summary: Follows on from 'Getting Down' - Once again Daniel has trouble getting down - this time from the ceiling of the Gate room R&R please
1. Chapter 1

General Jack O'Neill wandered into the Gate room watching as the FRED from SG-11's recently completed mission was carefully unloaded. He had a debrief with them scheduled in another fifteen minutes or so, right after Major Lorne's team finished with their medical check-ups.

He heard the coughing before he saw Daniel. In fact, everyone in the Gate room paused for a second at the horrible sound. Then in hurried Daniel who scanned the room while coughing into his sleeve. He made his way around the SF's unloading the FRED and shoved a clipboard into Jack's hands.

Jack looked at Daniel's pale face, with a frown. He hadn't had the chance to catch up with Daniel for a couple of days. By the look of things, that nasty cold of his had gotten a lot worse.

"Hey, Jack. Glad I caught you. I need this requisition form signed today if I'm gonna get any of these supplies before Christmas."

Jack put on an offended look. "Ya know, you used to say 'Hey, how are ya, Jack?' Now, all I get is: 'Hey, sign this, Jack.'"

Daniel didn't bat an eyelid. "Hey, how are you, Jack? Up for a game of chess on Friday at my place? And please sign this, Jack."

Jack patted at his jacket pockets looking for a pen. "Actually, by the sound of you, you're gonna be stuck in bed on Friday and Saturday _and_ Sunday. You should be home in bed, Daniel."

Daniel nodded wearily. "So everyone keeps telling me. Don't worry, I'm heading home right after I get these forms signed."

Jack felt an eyebrow lift in surprise. "And how did that happen?"

Daniel coughed raggedly into his sleeve, "How'd what happen?"

"Who threatened you with dire consequences if you didn't take your sick self home?"

Daniel's pale face reddened a little, and he turned to look at the FRED. "Teal'c did," He changed the subject, "Hey, did SG-11 get back early?"

"Yup, can't wait for _that_ debrief, I've thought up at least six snarky comments about those guys getting chased home by a tornado." Jack started patting at his pants pockets, still searching for his pen. "And you know you're not going to get out of it that easily. I want _details_. What _exactly_ did Teal'c threaten you with this time?"

Daniel lifted an eyebrow, refusing to be drawn in. "Chased - by a tornado?"

"Yup, Major Lorne said it was following them around like a puppy dog. Their new geologist – what's-his-name – Collins?"

"Burt Collins," supplied Daniel.

"Yeah, Collins seemed anxious to talk to you about something he found on PKA-215, by the by." Jack finally dug out his pen and signed the forms.

"Speaking of …, here comes Burt now," said Daniel.

Jack looked up from the clipboard to see Burt Collins hurrying into the Gate room, wearing an agitated expression. He stopped, staggered a little, locking eyes onto Daniel ... and then all hell broke lose.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

_Just the opener for a new story - if there is enough interest I'll keep going - otherwise I'm heavily into Supernatural at the mo. Happy new Year and please post a review so that i know if you want more. XXX_


	2. Chapter 2

Burt Collins took two unsteady steps in Daniel's direction and stopped. He lifted his head and his mouth opened wide. A stream of black vapour poured out of his mouth, spiralling up towards the ceiling making a loud howling noise as it emerged.

Jack dropped the clipboard and snatched hold of Daniel's arm. "Evacuate the Gateroom!" he yelled. "Walter! We've got a foothold situation. Shut down the mountain, level one security. Nothing gets in or out..."

"Sir, yes sir!" said Walter's frantic voice over the intercom. An alarm blared out in the background, but Jack could hardly hear it over the howling noise.

Daniel was staring at Burt Collins in horror. He took a hesitant step toward him.

Jack caught a hold of his arm and shoved Daniel behind him, watching as Airmen and maintenance personnel hurried towards the blast doors. Jack swore under his breath. This was _the_ worst time to call for an emergency evac of the Gate room. The room was jammed with personnel and there were crates, trolleys and containers everywhere hampering movement. Another ten minutes and the room would have been totally cleared, but as it was... .

"No, leave it!" yelled Jack at an Airman trying to carry out one of the specially wrapped boxes. "Just get yourselves clear!" He had a bad feeling in his gut that things were gonna get bad.

Jack watched warily as the last of the black cloud emerged from Burt Collins's mouth and the man fell bonelessly to the ground, dead or unconscious, he couldn't tell. He took a few steps towards the downed man, keeping a wary eye on the black vapour that had collected at the ceiling. The cloud coalesced, then thinned out and twisted and suddenly, there was a violent tornado howling through the Gate room.

"Oh. Crap. Move, move, move!" yelled Jack, pushing personnel toward the door, he reached around to grab at Daniel and push him along with the others but Daniel wasn't there. "Damn it!" cursed Jack. He glanced around frantically and caught a glimpse of his friend racing towards Collins's downed body.

The tornado strengthened, howling viciously, and Jack could see that the situation was suddenly a hundred times worse. Boxes and crates and people were picked up and flung around the room. The howling was steadily growing louder, the debris flying faster, and Jack knew that very soon there was gonna be serious damage for anyone still trapped in the room. "Pick up the pace people, move out as fast as you can!" he yelled over the ever increasing noise.

Seconds later crates were being picked up and smashed together in mid air, splinters and larger pieces of wood spiralling up and spitting out as fast as arrows around the room. Sample jars smashed filling the air with dirt and minerals and flying glass splinters. The muffles cries of pain from various personnel could barely be heard over the howling wind.

Jack started to yell an order but the words were whipped out of his mouth and thrown away. He gestured with his arms instead, urging people to grab hold of each other and get down low.

Jack ducked a box, getting down into a crouch and managed only a few feet towards Daniel and Collins when he got struck in the back by something that drove all of the air out of his body and laid him out flat on the floor. He lifted his head gulping in air like a goldfish and the clip board that Daniel had given him smacked him hard right in the face.

Jack got up onto hands and knees and caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He dove, and snatched at the arm of a guy as he started to fly backwards towards the tornado. Somehow, he dragged him back down to the floor. "Move, belly crawl it out of here!" he yelled, not sure that the words could be heard. But the guy was nodding, and got down and crawled frantically.

It was getting hard to see through the debris filled air. Jack's eyes were already beginning to tear up with all the grit that was getting in, and his exposed skin stung in various places from tiny and not so tiny cuts.

He spotted an Airman clutching a hand over a bleeding eye and crawling one handed, then Jack caught a glimpse of Daniel getting struck hard in the side by a flying trolley just as he was reaching out a hand to Burt's body. The blow shoved him across the floor several feet, and it was his curling up around the injury that saved him from being air lifted away. Daniel turned, reaching stubbornly back towards Burt again only to find that the geologist was gone.

An Airman and Burt Collins's unconscious body had been snatched up and spun dizzily around the room caught up in the tornadoes spiral. Once the bodies reached the top of the spiral they were flung free. The Airman's body bounced twice against the ceiling and then was flung out at incredible speed, impacting with an audible crunch of breaking bones against the observation window. The broken body left a long bloody stripe as it slid down the window. Burt Collins's body bowled into a group of three personnel holding on to each other as they tried to get out, knocking them flying - literally.

"General, incoming!" screamed a barely audible voice.

Jack spun and ducked just in time to dodge a huge spinning crate. It smashed into splinters behind him and Jack cried out as something large lodged into the back of his thigh.

Jack caught the leg of one of the maintenance guys that had been bowled over by Collins. The guy was airborne, arms crawling at the air in a frantic attempt to pull himself downward. Jack dragged him down to the floor and yelled close to his ear. "Keep low to the ground and crawl out as fast as you can."

The maintenance guy tugged at Jack's arm frantically, yelling back at him "Sir! You've got to get out too!"

"There are still people inside!" replied Jack. The maintenance guy's eyes squinted passed his shoulder and he yanked Jack down flat to the ground. Jack caught a vicious blow to the side of his head, and rolled over to see the remains of something that once must have been human, sliding down the wall behind him in a big red mess. His vision greyed out for a moment.

The next thing Jack knew he was being hauled out of the blast doors by Teal'c and the maintenance guy.

"Close the blast doors," shouted Walter's voice from the control room. The doors were slammed shut and there was sudden deafening silence in the hall.

Jack wanted to ask how many had gotten out. Wanted to order a head count, wanted to check how many of his people had been lost but his head and leg hurt and it was hard to stand, even with arms wrapped around the shoulders of Teal'c and the maintenance guy. His hand reached around to ease the throbbing at the side of his head. It came back covered in blood. Teal'c was saying something to him, words he couldn't hear. Teal'c was frowning at him in concern. But Jack's couldn't hear, then couldn't stand, then couldn't stay conscious ...

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_Hope this is okay, I'm not too good at writing descriptive passages - took me ages to get to this point. Please review._


	3. Chapter 3

Doctor Warner's face came blearily into view. "General, you're back with us."

Jack frowned, and then grimaced as the frown started hurting. He was lying in the hallway, outside of the Gate room. Around him were nurses, doctors and stretchers with people being carried out. "How long was I out?"

"You have only been unconscious for a matter of minutes, O'Neill," said Teal'c in concern. "I have Airman Billings conducting a head count."

"Help me upstairs to the control room, Teal'c."

"Now, General," said Doctor Warner frowning his concern. "You need to go to the infirmary. The head wound looks superficial but there is the possibility of a concussion and you have multiple cuts that need cleaning out. There's also the leg wound ... ."

"Just patch me up for now, Doctor. I need to be in the control room."

Teal'c effortlessly hauled Jack up with an arm around his waist. He helped Jack hop up the stairs, into the control room and sat him down carefully on the edge of a chair beside Walter.

Doctor Warner settled himself down beside him and started working on the leg wound.

Jack waited until the room stopped spinning and shot a look over at Walter who was looking grey and shaken.

"Are you okay, Walter?"

"Y..yes sir, General. I'll be fine, sir."

Jack lifted an eyebrow at him to say that he didn't believe a word of it.

"That was ah, Airman Wallace." Walter said quietly, nodding at the large blood stain on the window. "He was a good friend of mine."

Jack reached over and patted Walter on the shoulder in sympathy.

Walter took a breath, "I think everyone left alive got out."

Carter was suddenly beside Jack. She looked him over critically with her eyes open wide. "General, sir are you up to this?"

"I'll be just fine, Carter."

Carter nodded. And looked out into the Gate room. "Holy Hannah," she said under her breath.

Jack turned and took his first good look into the Gate room. The black debris filled tornado had shrunk down to half it's former size and spiralled around on the grid ramp before the Stargate. The grid work shuddered and shook but remained bolted in place. To say that it looked like a bomb or three had gone off in the Gate room wouldn't have been overstating it. Every thing that hadn't been tied down was smashed into smaller pieces. The lights were mostly destroyed, the remains of a tent were caught over the Stargate and shredded bits of canvas flapped viciously to and fro. Jack could see the unidentifiable remains of several mangled bodies. "Damn it," he cursed softly. "Someone find out from Airman Billings about the head count. I want to know who ... ." A glance back into the Gate room had Jack grimly rewording his sentence. "I want to know who didn't make it. I also need Major Lorne's team in the conference room ASAP.

" Jack grimaced in pain and rubbed a hand at his head. "Walter, if you're up to it, can you check what teams are due in and when?"

"There's only SG-4 due in at 1800 hours, sir. No other teams are due back for another seventy two hours," said Walter without having to check his schedule.

"Teal'c, if you don't mind, can you check where Daniel is? – He was closer to the other blast door, but I was out of it for a while and didn't see ..."

Teal'c bowed his head in acknowledgement and hurried off.

Carter looked at the FRED with awed eyes. "Geez, I thought they made FRED's practically indestructible."

"We'll ask for a refund at the next meeting, Carter. Owww!" Jack shot a glare down at Warner.

Warner withdrew a large needle from Jack's thigh and glared back. "Sorry General, but you should _really_ have this stitched up in the infirmary. I can't work well here with you twisting and turning."

Jack held his hands up in surrender. "Look, all I'm asking is for you to warn a guy before you start with the honking great needles, okay?"

Warner muttered something under his breath and reached for more local anaesthetic.

Carter sat down at a computer terminal. "I'll get the emergency lighting working, and see if I can work out a way to get an analysis on that tornado."

An Airman bounded up the steps enthusiastically and stood stiffly at attention by Jack's chair. "General, sir?" said Airman Billings, holding a clipboard in his hand. "My preliminary headcount shows sixteen personnel taken to the infirmary for injuries, four people listed as having serious injuries and eight personnel unaccounted for."

Teal'c stepped back into the control room behind Billings. "Daniel Jackson was not seen at the other blast door exit, O'Neill."

Billings held out his clipboard. "Doctor Jackson is one of the eight listed as missing, sir."

"Oh, God no, Jack!" whispered Carter's voice.

Jack spun to look at her horrified face and then quickly scanned the bodies that he could see through the window. None of them could be identified as Daniel though so, feeling completely confused, he rechecked what Carter was looking at. Strangely, she was looking up. For a moment Jack couldn't see what she was looking at. Then his gaze lit up on a body pressed up onto the ceiling of the Gate room by the apex of the tornado.

"Daniel?" whispered Jack.

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_Hope you enjoy this. I haven't had much time for writing this fic but hopefully things will improve soon. Please review and let me know if you want more._


	4. Chapter 4

Carter was biting her lip. "I can't tell if Daniel's alive or not. He's not moving but it's hard to see with that tornado in the way."

"Oh God," said Walter staring up at Daniel. "Sir, I swear I didn't know he was still in there ..."

Jack made soothing gestures with his hands. "Not your fault Walter, I'm pretty damned sure that Daniel was targeted by that weirdo tornado thing all along."

"Sir?" asked Carter.

"I saw the whole thing, Carter. SG-11 arrived home with all of their samples and what-not and the first thing Burt Collins asks for is Daniel. Said he had something he wanted to discuss with him. So, not long after Daniel turns up with some req. forms for my signature and in comes Collins. He lays his eyes on Daniel, opens his mouth and out pours the tornado that now has him pinned up like an ornamental lamp shade. So - let's assume that Daniel's alive and that tornado wants him for something that we're not going to let it have."

Teal'c frowned at the tornado. "I do not believe there is a safe manner in which to retrieve Daniel Jackson."

Jack shook his head grimly.

"General O'Neill, sir?" said an airman from the control room door. "SG-11 has just arrived in the conference room."

Jack waved his hand in acknowledgement. His eyes still fixed on Daniel on the ceiling of the Gate room. "I need full time observation set up on that tornado. I want to know if it does anything new the moment it … does anything new."

"Yes sir, said Carter. I'll arrange for a watch to be set up."

Jack shook himself and stood up awkwardly. Teal'c wrapped a supporting arm around the General's waist.

Warner frowned at him as he quickly packed things back into a mobile medical kit. "I'll have someone send over a wheelchair for you sir, if you insist on moving around."

"Thanks Doc. Walter, is there someone who can take over for you for a while?"

Walter had taken off his glasses and looked very shaken. He stared through the observation window and didn't answer.

Doctor Warner brushed passed Jack briskly. "He's probably in shock. I'll take him with me to the infirmary."

Jack nodded. "Carter ..."

"I'll take over for him for now sir," said Carter sliding into Walter's seat.

"Let's go see SG-11, 'T." Jack spared a worried glance through the observation window for his friend before hobbling out with Teal'c's help.

Major Lorne and his team were standing at attention when Jack hobbled in. "Afternoon, General, sir. Sorry we're late. We just got released from sickbay two minutes ago sir, delayed because of an emergency situation in the Gate room. Collins was headed down there not long ago and I think he might be caught up in whatever's happening in there."

Teal'c settled Jack into the chair at the head of the conference table, and the rest of Sg-11 took their seats.

"He's not gonna make this meeting Major. I want to hear everything about your last mission, especially about that tornado. Teal'c would you mind opening the blinds there?" Jack waved his hand to indicate the blinds concealing the Gate observation window while SG-11 exchanged puzzled frowns.

"You might have heard Burt asking for Daniel when your team arrived back?" began Jack.

Captain Gerry Newfeld shared a frown of puzzlement with Major Lorne. "Yeah. I mean, yes sir, General. I wasn't really sure what he wanted to talk to the Doctor about. Burt's been a little quiet the last day or two."

Teal'c pulled the blinds up.

"Sweet Mary!"

"That's not ..."

"The blood stain to your right was one of our Airmen about thirty minutes ago. And plastered on the ceiling is our good Doctor Jackson. So I'd really appreciate knowing exactly how a _tornado _managed to hitch hike inside your geologist to put this entire base into another foothold situation."

Major Lorne stared out into the observation room. "The tornado was _inside _Burt?"

Jack nodded his head. "Collins' came looking for Daniel. When he found him in the Gate room he took two steps toward him and a tornado poured out of his mouth. Now what I'd like to know is exactly how a tornado got inside your geologist in the first place."

Lieutenant Peters and Captain Newfeld shared puzzled looks with Major Lorne. Major Lorne ran a hand through his hair. "Sir, there wasn't any clue. I mean. Burt was normal, maybe a little quieter than usual the last day or so ..."

"After his watch," murmured Peters.

Jack pinned Peters with his gaze.

Peter's straightened in his chair, unconsciously, "Burt took the last watch on PKA-215 the night before we got to the Gate ..."

Jack held up his hands. "Let's take it from the beginning."

Major Lorne nodded. "PKA-215, sir. Uninhabited world, we spent four days doing a standard set of geological and scientific surveys. No major mineral finds of any interest, no intelligent life signs, not much of anything of interest to be honest. We packed up to head home early. Three days away, some tornadoes turned up."

"Some tornadoes? As in more than one?"

"Yes sir. About twelve at first, right out of a clear day. We took shelter in some caves that Collins' had found. But the tornadoes sort of stuck around."

"I was starting to think there might be more to the tornadoes than just air, 'cause they weren't going anywhere. Well we settled in for the night. Collins' had last watch and everything seemed fine. Next morning all but two of the tornadoes had gone. We double timed it back to the gate. But we had the two tornadoes following us back the whole way. We tried changing direction a couple of times but the tornadoes turned with us. Burt didn't seem compromised sir, I swear! He followed orders just fine. He was just quieter than usual, but I put that down to him not being quiet as fit as the rest of us."

Jack nodded. "None of you got touched by one of these tornadoes? None of you noticed anything weird about them other than that they were following you?"

Newfeld shook his head and then tilted his head to the side in consideration. "One of the tornadoes was darker than the others, but it disappeared during Burt's watch. I had the watch just before his. And .. there were eleven orange toned tornadoes when I went to sleep, plus one dark one. When I woke up there were only two orange tornadoes left."

"So, one dark tornado. Kinda like the one pinning Daniel to the ceiling?"

"Newfeld shot a look through the observation window. "Yessir," he said softly, sounding a little sick. "Exactly that colour."

Major Lorne was looking through the window to the Gate room. "Jeez … how many bodies ..."

"Eight listed as missing, including Jackson and Collins," supplied Jack, grimly.

Teal'c leaned closer to the observation window. "O'Neill, Daniel Jackson appears to be moving."

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG


	5. Chapter 5

Daniel moaned, struggling towards consciousness. He felt more than a little awful, his head hurt and he felt cold and squashed, He tried shifting to another spot but … somehow that wasn't working. Daniel made two or three attempts to get his eyes open, realising foggily that something wasn't right. For some reason he was being blasted by an awful loud noise and he hurt. Why did his side hurt?

Daniel peeled crusty eyes open and blinked and squinted again and again trying to take in the impossible situation. It took him a while to believe what his eyes were telling him. A tornado had him plastered thirty feet or so above a concrete floor. In moments Daniel was having trouble stopping himself from hyperventilating. "Oh God, someone get me out of here!"

There were very few situations, that Daniel could imagine, that could be worse than this one. He'd just woken up into the middle of a nightmare. God, he _hated_ heights. Him and high places didn't get along at all, and more often than not – falling from said high places factored into the reason _why_ he hated heights. And this situation almost held a written _guarantee_ for a thirty foot fall in his very near future.

Frantically Daniel peered around himself looking for something, anything that he could maybe grab onto or anchor himself on. There was a light fitting – a large spotlight thing about ten feet away, if he could maybe get to it. Daniel tried moving. Inching –crawling across the ceiling – a move that was freaking him out in itself, when suddenly the tornado dropped him. Daniel screamed and slammed his eyes shut – expecting to meet the concrete - any second – any second now.

Daniel's eyes snapped open. He was floating about ten feet down, being pummeled from head to toe by the tornado. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't spinning _with_ the tornado, and squinted carefully at the apex. The tornado was spinning at the bottom but the top where he was, was relatively stable, somehow, like a black mist, or ...

Slam!

"Nahhh!" yelped Daniel. He was back on the ceiling again, having been slammed back into it so fast that his back stung with fresh bruises. He clenched his teeth in pain for a few moments. "Damn that hurt," Daniel scanned the room looking for something or someone. His glasses were gone so everything was hazy, especially trying to see around the tornado. But it didn't take him long to see that the Gate room had been all but destroyed. There was so much debris in the air that he couldn't see very much beyond the destruction. There was a hint of movement behind a large wheel near the observation window. He could see movement behind the protective glass of the control room but he couldn't make out individual faces. A piece of wood sliced at his cheek and Daniel yelped.

"Hello? Anyone hear me?" Daniel yelled, trying to get his arm down over his sore side to protect it from the pummelling it was getting. A piece of his jacket tore free and was flung away. A glance down showed that his clothes had a dozen rips and tears in it, some of them displaying evidence of blood. "Jack? Somebody? Can someone get me out of here?" Even as he spoke the shaky words, Daniel realised that there wasn't anything anyone could do. Daniel swallowed back a gulp of terror. There was a large red streak on the observation window, and it didn't take much in the way of imagination to guess what it was. "Jack? Oh God, tell me you got everyone out."

The tornado shifted him, sliding him rapidly across the ceiling to slam against a girder. Daniel cried out with pain and suddenly some of the tornado was pouring into his mouth.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Sam Carter was working frantically at the computer in the control room. She had two security cameras still on line in the Gate room and audio as well. She was busy sifting the feedback to take out the noise that the tornado was making. "Nearly there, sir."

A collective intake of breath from all the personnel around her had Sam glancing up from the terminal. Daniel was awake again and the tornado had dropped him down about ten feet. Sam could guess that everyone, including Daniel, had thought that Daniel was about to be dropped all the way, but the tornado had him still. By the look of Daniel he was being badly battered. Sam bit at her lip and dipped her head down to finish her work.

"...me out of here?" It was Daniel's voice, still a little hard to hear with the background noise but at least they could hear what he was saying.

"Great work, Carter," murmured Jack.

"Dear heaven!" Sam glanced over her shoulder to see the shocked expression on Dr Warner's face. Sargaent Hariman was with the doctor and looked equally shocked at the view through the window.

"Walter, It's nice to see you back here but ..."

"Sorry sir, I'd like to be back on duty sir. Doctor Warner ..."

"It would be against my medical advice sir. Howev ..."

"Ahhht!" said Jack abruptly. "Gentlemen this is hardly the place ..."

Sargent Harriman spoke up. "If I may Sir, Sargent Davis was due to relieve me but he's locked out and I know these systems better than anyone."

"I know you do Walter, but ..."

"Doctor Jackson is a friend of mine too, sir!"

Jack swallowed the comment he was about to make.

Doctor Warner slipped in with his own comment. "General sir, I've agreed to accompany the Sargent and be available should medical assistance be needed down here. They have things well in hand in the infirmary, and to be frank, I'm needed here more at the moment."

Jack nodded his head. "Take your seat Walter."

"Thank you, sir," murmured the Sargent gratefully, he slid into the seat beside Sam and started work.

"Doctor Warner, we could use your medical opinion," said Jack. "Daniel was about to head home with that nasty cough he had. Now given that he's stuck in there with little hope of rescue any time soon how long do you think ..." Jack had turned back to look at his friend and forgot the rest of his sentence as he saw Daniel get brutally slammed up onto the ceiling again. He watched in horror as the tonrnado slip Daniel rapidly across the ceiling to slam into a girder. Daniels' mouth opened with a cry of pain and the black top part of the tornado seemed to pour into his friends mouth. "Oh crap."

Doctor Warner had his eyes glued to the scene through the observation window. He adjusted his glasses. "Doctor Jackson had developed a chest infection. I'd just placed him on a course of antibiotics to help clear it since it's been bothering him for a while. Without water or food, and with the constant battering he's receiving I'd say he's got only twenty hours or so at the most."

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG


	6. Chapter 6

Daniel could feel it going in. Feel it spreading up into his head and down into his legs. An icy cold wave of alien matter, that immediately started heating up inside him until his body felt like it was being stung by bees from the inside. Reflexively he tried coughing out the stuff. Gagging. But that didn't seem to help, he could still feel it spreading inside of him. His body convulsed unexpectedly. He turned his head and twisted desperately from side to side trying to shake it out of him, making inarticulate sounds of distress. He understood that shaking like a dog was probably not going to help at all but he couldn't help it. He wanted it _out_. He vaguely registered that the tornado was more orange than it had been and that part of it had split off from the rest and had formed a second, smaller tornado.

Daniel covered his mouth and nose protectively with a hand and then coughed hard trying to force the stuff _out_ of him. He writhed on the ceiling in panic and then abruptly, he froze. His concentration turned inward as he sensed intelligence in what had gotten inside him. Intelligence and malice.

Abruptly, with a stabbing pain through his head, he was elsewhere. "Sha're?" he whispered and he was lying there on the floor of a tent beside her body. Distantly, he could hear the sounds of staff weapons and P90's and Teal'c speaking urgently from close by, but he was overwhelmed with Sha're. He had found her at last. After so long. He reached out to her with a hand that he could barely lift, longing to touch her again, to hold her one last time. Glimpsing the final moment of life leave her dark eyes even as the overwhelming pain from the hand device dragged him irrevocably towards oblivion.

"No! Sha're?" Daniel gasped again and blinked his eyes. His hand was reaching out to her. To ... the tornado. He was on the ceiling in the Gate room. He wasn't lying on the floor beside her. She wasn't … but it had felt so _real_. His stomach churned with nausea, and his head pounded with the remembered residual effects of a concentrated hand device attack. He'd relived it. He'd had a moment of his life lived again as vividly as if it had just happened. The tornado was inside his mind!

Again a stab of pain and his focus shifted. Mom and dad were working underneath the cover stone. They were looking up at it and giving directions about moving it. Both of them were reaching up hands to the stone above them ready to guide it into place as it was lowered towards them. Daniel was watching curiously from behind the safety rope, wondering how much the stone weighed and how much longer it was going to be before they were finished and they could go home. He opened his mouth to call out to his mom when the stone dropped with a crash and he froze in horror, hearing voices cry out around him in shock. He stared in disbelief as people swarmed around the stone, and he watched a pool of blood seep from beneath the stone and he knew what it meant. "No … mom?"

Oh, God no! "Jack, … help ...!" Daniel cried out desperately. He couldn't live through these things again. He _couldn't_ … . His body shuddered and shifted under the tornado's control. Daniel focussed on the Gate. _Concentrated_ on it. It wasn't real. He was in the Gate room. He'd been compromised. It was hurting him with his own memories. He had to fight or he'd lose his mind. He needed to focus. Use the disciplines that Teal'c had taught him to focus his thoughts... Ow! ...

Radiation poisoning. Machines beeping quietly around him. Dim lighting overhead. He felt the pain pulsing through his body with each struggling heartbeat. He tried to keep as still as he could now that even the slightest movement was too much to cope with … . He was getting weaker as the pain grew stronger, and he was losing touch with parts of himself. He didn't want to know what was happening with his legs or his arms. Wished that he hadn't read what radiation poisoning did to a body …. . This time there was nothing to be done, no last minute miracles to save him. He was dying; arms and legs already useless piles of mush … . He was going to die on a Tuesday, he wouldn't make Wednesday. Surprised at how calm he was about it. He supposed that was because it had been the right thing to do – stopping the crisis on Kelowna from happening. He'd saved a lot of people... . He was sad though. Sad – for Jack and Sam and Teal'c and General Hammond and … for himself. Sad that there wouldn't be any more tomorrows with them. Sad that they were hurting, and that they had to watch him die … . The bandages hurt his skin and he wanted to ask for them to be removed except ... Jack was here. Jack was here and he didn't want him to see … He could see the pain in Jack's eyes and sometimes he wanted Jack to leave but at the same time he desperately wanted him to stay. Dying alone was … one of the nightmares that he'd always wanted to avoid. Daniel wished that he could pass out again, dream of Oma, … . The pain meds weren't working anymore... .

No, it wasn't real. It wasn't happening again!

Daniel drew breath again and felt more of the tornado entering his body. He tried this time to shut his mouth … tried to stop it getting in but the pain was unbearable and again his memories focussed on the radiation poisoning despite his efforts to concentrate ... . He could feel cold creeping up his body … the parts that were still alive. His arms and legs were gone. He couldn't feel them anymore. Jack was sitting beside him so quietly ... . Agony. Intensifying agony that had his whole body shuddering uncontrollably. He couldn't help the scream that tore from him. More of the tornado surged into him with his next breath and Daniel felt consciousness fading fast. His body shuddered again, burning with ice. Harder and harder he shook until he was thumping on the ceiling in convulsions ….

**_SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG_**

**_Sorry this took so long. Iv'e had the flu and a chest infection to boot. Still catching up on everything that didn't get done while i was down and out. _**


	7. Chapter 7

"There's someone else in the room," said Walter pointing to movement displayed on the edge of the monitor that Sam had just finished setting up. "Look there, behind that wheel, I swear I saw movement just a moment ago."

Sam checked where Walter was pointing and then stood and leaned past the controls pressing her nose up against the window. "Damn, you're right!" she raced around to the conference room. "General, there's someone else still alive in there."

"What?" said Jack, struggling up unsteadily from his seat.

"Where?" said Teal'c stepping briskly over to the observation window.

Sam pointed nearly straight down. "There, you can just make him out behind the wheel there. "He's using the wheel as a shield and he's making his way towards the blast door."

Teal'c straightened. "I see him, but he appears to be badly injured. We must mount a rescue attempt." He turned with a raised eyebrow toward Jack.

Jack gave up trying to walk and settled back into his chair with a grimace of pain. "One man op, Teal'c. Go get what you need, and be careful in there."

Teal'c nodded and raced out of the room.

Jack glanced through the window at his friend squirming on the ceiling. He hated feeling helpless. Hated it more than anything - except for losing people – losing people was _the_ worst. And looking at Daniel now, weakly writhing on the ceiling, clearly terrified half out of his mind, he knew that his friend didn't have any where near the twenty hours that Warner had given him. Daniel would be dead in under two hours if things didn't change fast. But there wasn't anything he could do about the situation. "Carter, we need information and ideas. This thing is going south so fast – I don't think Daniel's gonna last much longer."

Carter had a thinking frown on her face. "Sir, … I've seen this before. Not the black tornado but the orange one – that's familiar. Something … orange."

Jack glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't like her to be so vague and hesitant. But he followed her frowning gaze and did a double take himself on the view through the window. Yeah, there _was_ something about orange tornados. Something … about orangeaide air ... He had a flashback of Daniel caught up in a massive orange tornado and he was on his feet without thinking. "We've met them before."

This time it was Carter staring back at him with a raised eyebrow, "Sir?"

"Think Carter. There was a planet, lots of sand and you couldn't see much cause the air was orange. I think … I'm _sure_, there was another tornado ..."

Sam interrupted him. "Huge thing. And it talked. You're right sir, we have met them before but it's all … so vague. I can't remember exactly what happened or why. How could we not remember something like that?"

Jack shook his head and shuffled over to the observation window with a hand pressed supportingly against his injured thigh. "I don't know, but the more I look at that … orange thing the more I'm remembering stuff – like it hurt Daniel … badly."

Sam paled visibly and looked back through the observation window. "Tealc's in," she murmured.

Jack peered over as the blast doors were being manually closed behind Teal'c. He had a transparent riot shield in front of him and a headset on underneath some protective eye goggles and he was crouched down low moving quickly over the debris.

An airman brought in a radio for the General, and Jack turned it on to receive Teal'c's signal right away.

"The hostile has not responded threateningly to my presence as yet." There was a pause as Teal'c pushed aside the remains of the FRED. "I can see him," Teal'c said over the noise of the tornado. "I believe it to be Burt Collins. He's unconscious and in need of immediate medical attention."

Sam hurried over and picked up a phone to call for a medical team.

"Teal'c!" Teal'c get me down!" screamed Daniel, he broke into a fit of ragged hacking coughs.

Jack and Sam both looked up together as Daniel's voice sounded over the radio.

"Please Teal'c. No, no don't … Teal'c, comprom … . It hurts, please!"

Teal'c had frozen for a moment and cursed softly in his native tongue. Quickly he snagged the body he had come to retrieve and dragged it towards the blast doors. He could not help but glance up at his friend on the ceiling. The friend he could not help, the friend he had failed so many times before. "I wish to remain here, O'Neill. If there is a chance to retrieve Daniel Jackson safely then it is best if I remain close by."

Jack spoke into the radio. "I can't ask you to do it buddy."

Teal'c glanced up at him through his shield. "I am Daniel Jackson's best chance. I will not fail him while there is hope. I have arrived by the door with Burt Collins, open the blast door."

Jack took in the situation. The tornado hadn't moved against the downed man or Teal'c. "Okay, stay inside but be careful and keep close to the blast door, 'T, just in case."

"I shall be cautious," promised Teal'c. He passed the body through the blast doors being particularly careful with the Geologist's mangled leg wound. He stood on guard as the doors slowly closed again, watching the tornado. There was only a few inches gap when Teal'c heard an out of place sound followed by gunfire and frantic shouts from the hallway. Quickly he spun to the door but it closed before him, sealing him inside the Gate room.

**_SGSGSGSGSGSGGSGSGSGSG_**


	8. Chapter 8

_**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**_

"Lock it down! Lock it down!" yelled an Airman.

"What …" Carter peered around the Airman to see a smaller tornado out in the hall way blocking the way to Collins's unconscious body which lay sprawled out on the floor by the Gate rooms sealed blast door. The security doors at either end of the hall had been locked down as well trapping them and the tornado in the section.

"There was another one of those things inside Collins ma'am," said an Airman briskly. He held his weapon at the ready aimed at the tornado.

Carter glanced at his name tag. "Airman Gates …"

"Iv'e got to help that man," interrupted Doctor Warner from behind her.

Carter turned to the side in the observation room doorway to let the Doctor and the General through. "The area is locked down Doctor, and I don't see how we can guarantee your safety."

Warner eyed the tornado nervously and then looked down toward Collins. "I'll take the risk. I can see from here that his wound needs immediate attention."

"I can try to distract it, sir." said Carter to the General. "If it has the ability to talk, maybe I can negotiate with it."

Jack's eyebrows drew down in a worried frown. "Try it Carter. But if that tornado makes any moves towards either of you, back off. Airman Gates, you and your men position yourselves to back them up in case they need to run for it."

"Yes sir," said Gates.

Carter waited until Gates and the other three gunmen were in position before she stepped down the stairs and moved forward slowly, her hands held out before her in a non-threatening gesture. "I'm Samantha Carter, I think I've met some of your ahh – people before. We're ummm … not trying to hurt you. Doctor Warner here just wants to check the man that's been injured."

Warner nodded and pushed his glasses up a nose that was already coated in cold sweat. He gripped his medical bag protectively in front of him and sidled towards the sprawled body on the floor. The tornado backed away from the body shrinking down to about eight feet in height. The sound of it – like a constant roar – also quieted down. Warner knelt cautiously beside the body and set his medical bag down with shaking hands. He pulled scissors out and began to cut away the material around the leg wound on Collins.

Carter stepped between the tornado and Doctor Warner and his patient. She was trying to remember more about the encounter with orange beings but the memories only came in short flashes. She remembered sand and an orange atmosphere and that she'd been terrified for Daniel whom she remembered had been badly hurt. Very badly hurt. But she couldn't remember much beyond that. "We visited your world before," she said again, and then was momentarily lost for words. Damn, what did you say to a tornado? All the usual small talk sort of stuff was useless. Daniel was so good at this sort of thing. "Ummm … we'd like to ask what you want from us?"

The tornado continued to spin in the corner.

"Holy …!"

Warner's exclamation of surprise had Carter glancing over to him. He had scrambled back away from Collins's body, giving her a view of a long, wide, nasty leg wound that was covered with rapidly moving particles of orange.

"General, she called back over her shoulder. "There are more of them still inside of Collins's body. I can see an orange substance …." Carter had to pause for a few seconds as she double checked what she was seeing. "I think there's another one of them inside of him repairing the wound."

Jack was out in the corridor. He hobbled forward.

"That's … incredible," murmured Warner. He could see the leg wound being repaired. Could see torn blood vessels and muscles being rapidly mended – more efficiently than sutures or stitches. This was complete reconstruction of the tissue, and even as he watched he could see that slowly, the wound was shrinking as new skin was being formed.

"Back up, people," said Jack.

Carter's gaze snapped up. The tornado in the corner was approaching Collins's body again. She scrambled backward pushing a somewhat stunned looking Doctor Warner ahead of her.

"Man, that not right," murmured Airman Gates.

Jack couldn't have agreed more with that statement. Out of Collins's mouth and nose poured orange stuff. Jack could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he watched, knowing – somehow – without really remembering, that he'd had the orange stuff inside of himself once too.

Carter stopped beside him and watched with huge eyes as the orange substance emerging from Collins blended with the tornado. "Ugg," she muttered, "that's awful."

"More so since I think we had the same thing happen to us once," said Jack.

Carter shot him a startled glance and then her eyes grew thoughtful. "I think you're right , sir. But I don't remember that it attacked us so much as it was trying to defend itself against us."

"Well it's attacking some of us now," said Jack with a small tilt of his head towards the Gate room blast door.

"Yoooooooouuuuuu!" howled the tornado.

Jack's head snapped up. "Yeah? You said something?"

"Yoouuu are the Jack one?"

Jack's head snapped up and he staggered a little on his injured leg. "Yeah! So you're the beings that we met before in that orangeaide place."

"You remember!" The tornado sounded outraged.

"Yeah, I remember a lot of stuff. Like you hurt Daniel before and now your buddy in our Gate room has Daniel pinned up on the ceiling of all places _and_ you've hurt him _again_!"

"Not!" said the tornado.

"Excuse me?" said Jack in outrage.

"We are not the one that harmed the Daniel. We are not the one harming the Daniel now."

Jack managed, just barely, to hold back the nasty comment that snapped into his head. "Tell me then, what exactly is hurting Daniel? 'Cause it sure as hell looks like one of you tornado guys."

"The dead one. The Anubis one."

**_SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG_**


	9. Chapter 9

**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**

"Oh no, no, no," said Jack shaking his head in denial. "We are _not_ having another run in with Anubis. That useless stinky gas leak is _dead_ already."

"You know of this Anubis one?"

Jack ran a hand through his hair. "Believe me, we wish we didn't."

Collins, on the floor, stirred and sat up abruptly. "Oh … God," he murmured, blinking around with a dazed expression.

Warner took a few steps closer, sidling along the wall so as to stay well clear of the tornados.

"How are you doing, Collins?" asked Jack.

Collins did a double take at the tornados and stood up using the wall for support and helped by Warner's supporting arm. "I'm um … alright now I guess ... ah General, sir. Slight headache." He nodded his head at the tornados. "But I wouldn't have been okay, if it weren't for ah … the ahh … those orange things."

"Oh?" said Jack.

"They … ah. I guess they protected me from something else. They kept healing me when the other thing … _deliberatly_ hurt me. It was something bad, General sir. There was something else _really_ bad and it wanted Doctor Jackson!"

"The Anubis one has captured one of us, and now uses our one against that ones will. Our Teacher and some of us work to free the stolen one and protect the humans that the Anubis one attacks. We do not understand the Anubis one. We do not know its purpose but it is very powerful."

Jack and Carter exchanged a glance and Jack sighed. "Look, my leg is starting to ache right now. Why don't you all come up into the conference room with us. I want to keep an eye on what's going on in the Gate room, and I want you to explain to us how exactly Anubis managed to escape that ice planet that we sent him to."

"You sent the Anubis to our sister world?"

"It's a long story," said Carter. She followed Jack up the steps and into the conference room followed by the two tornados, Warner and Collins.

Jack took a seat at the conference table close to the observation window. His leg sent a pulse of agony shooting up his body as he settled in and he closed his eyes for a second over the spike of pain it sent into his head. He looked through the observation window. Daniel was still pinned against the Gate room ceiling. He was still conscious and struggled weakly against the tornado although his struggles seemed more automatic than purposeful. His clothing had been almost torn to rags by now, and Jack could see bloody cuts almost covering his friend.

Collins collapsed into a chair with his mouth open in horror. He glanced sorrowfully at the General. "I did that. I brought it in and now it's got Doctor Jackson."

"I don't think you could have stopped it, Collins. Anubis is too powerful." Jack wrenched his gaze away from Daniel and clenched his jaw tightly. "Carter, make sure that Teal'c is tuned in. I want him to hear this," he said turning his chair toward the twin tornados that had taken up a spot where Daniel usually sat. "Finish your story."

"We travelled to a frozen world that we have journeyed to on many occasions. This time we found a human body not far from the Gate. It was frozen and lifeless. Teacher said it was long expired and beyond repair but one of us explored the body wishing to try to find signs of life. It failed, but when our one emerged from the body, it was different. We did not understand."

Carter exchanged wide eyed glances with Jack. "Colonel Vaselov. When Anubis went into him, we sent him to an ice world. We thought that would be the end of him."

"You are responsible? You sent the Anubis to that world within one of your own beings?"

Jack exchanged another glance with Carter. "Colonel Vaselov gave his life to save ours. We didn't _send_ him … Well, we _did_ send him – or rather, Anubis _took_ him – once he was inside Vaselov's body." Jack shook his head. "The _point_ is, we didn't have a choice and we _thought_ the planet was uninhabitated. No-one in his right mind would wanna visit that ball of ice." said Jack.

"We visit that world regularly. And it is _not_ uninhabitated. Many microorganisms thrive there. It is also rich in many resources that we find valuable."

"Okay, okay. We might have made a little mistake. Anubis is a half ascended former Goa'uld if that means anything to you. Stealing other bodies and destroying life is what he does. We were hoping Anubis would die on that ice ball before he hurt anything else."

The two tornados slowed their spinning. "_We_ consider that world almost as a second home world. We learn of that world and gather its resources."

Carter shook her head. "I'm sorry, we didn't think anything lived there."

Jack raised a hand. "Look, admittedly we're kinda new at the whole exploring the galaxy thing. If we had it over, we would have dumped him down a black hole or into a sun or something so as not to bother any micro-whatsits but we didn't _have_ much time for picking and choosing at the time and we _thought_ the ice ball would be the end of Anubis."

Teal'c's voice sounded curtly through the speaker on the table. "This is not the time for placing blame. We must find a way to rescue Daniel Jackson and the other entities and rid ourselves of Anubis."

"We apologise," said one of the tornados. "Teacher had taken us to the ice world to explore and learn from it, but the one of us that had attempted to repair the frozen human left our group and travelled through the Gate, even though it was forbidden. Teacher could not leave us alone and so we merged together to give pursuit over our stolen one."

Jack frowned. "You keep talking about a teacher – does that mean that you're like an under aged tornado?"

Collins was shaking his head. "They're much older than us, um General sir."

The tornado swelled a little and spun quietly for a time. "Correct. We are newly emerged ones, although far greater in age than you humans are. We learn from an elder one that acts as the teacher."

Jack let out a sigh. "Go on, what happened next."

"Our stolen one had travelled to another world and we followed. Teacher thought the stolen one was unwell. We could not sense it anymore. Teacher left us and attempted to merge with the stolen one. But Anubis had merged and would not release the one. For many days, Teacher tried to free our lost one but could not. Teacher could not learn much from the Anubis one – it was too powerful. Teacher did not learn why the Anubis stole one of us. But Teacher learned that the Anubis one had information regarding Stargate addresses to be visited by teams from your world. That is why it had taken one of us to the new world. The Anubis learned from us also and soon Teacher found it difficult to separate from the Anubis one. Teacher wished to return some of us to our home world to seek assistance but more humans arrived. We knew that the humans would be most vulnerable and we sought to protect them. Teacher told us that only together could we hope to succeed in releasing our stolen one. Most of us merged together to force the Anubis to release our lost one. Two of us remained free to protect the humans, but the Anubis learned too well and merged with the Burt Collins. We could not escape. The human ones travelled to this world and we travelled within the Burt Collins one. Anubis harmed the Collins one. We repaired. We learned. The Anubis one seeks the Daniel Jackson one. Anubis wishes to ascend within the Daniel Jackson one."

Carter's eyes lost focus. "Sir …"

"Yeah, I know. We can't let Anubis do what he's trying to do, but he's got all the cards. I've got no idea how we're gonna stop him, and unless you can think of something brilliant, Carter …"

"Sorry sir," said Sam looking distressed. "Anything that we use will either hurt Daniel or might hurt the orange entities. I don't see any way for us to get rid of Anubis without hurting them."

"Teacher knows. Teacher expelled us from the merge. We are directed to assist you in freeing us and the Daniel one from the Anubis one. We regret that the Anubis one has used us to damage some of the humans. One of us requests immediate re-admittance to your Gate room. We wish to seek out all the humans that are damaged and repair them if we are able. Teacher requires your assistance in freeing all from the Anubis."

"Your Teacher has a plan?"

"As Anubis learned from us so did we learn from the Anubis."

_**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**_


	10. Chapter 10

There was a war going on inside of Daniel Jackson.

Literally.

He was pretty sure that he was losing …

That thought was fleeting – as were all of Daniels' thoughts.

Daniel was trying to concentrate on _other_ things. He was going from one memory to another, jumping from one thought to another, concentrating on different sensations, feelings, thoughts, images, anything. All in all he was trying to stop Anubis from catching up with him and forcing his consciousness – his central thoughts – his essence or soul or - whatever, from doing what Anubis wanted.

Bees. It felt like a bee hive in his head. Buzzing, _stinging_ bees.

And punches. The apex of the tornado punched against him relentlessly – not enough to break bones but enough to leave bruises and pain.

Think of house bills. Had he paid his electricity bill on time?

Mrs Mills would be wanting him to help move that sofa by now. He _had_ promised …

Man, his head hurt! His eyes stung and leaked grit filled tears.

This wasn't the first time that Anubis had gotten inside of his body and this time Anubis wasn't trying to hide. He was trying to force Daniel to relive his death and ascension – and it didn't take a genius to figure out why ….

"**Daniel Jackson …"**

Daniel's thoughts shifted instantly. Try to remember Sha're preparing dishes for the evening meal.

Think of Sam's face when she gets excited about something …

Teal'c, teaching him kel'no'reen …

Remember to feed the fish when … _Pain_.

Daniel's eyes opened, he'd been slammed against the girder again and his side was on _fire_ … . A flash of fury rippled through his mind – but it hadn't been _him_ feeling it … . A dark shroud swooped …

**His body was struggling to breathe now, he felt suffocated, and it felt like he had been embalmed by all the bandages wrapped around him – holding his bleeding body together yet suffocating him at the same time. Janet came by with another syringe and stuck it into the IV feed. She gave him a**** pain filled**** glance that spoke … volumes. ****And abruptly he **_**hated**_** this. Daniel wished he could die already, and ****get the pain over for himself and for all of his friends ****that were ****watching him die …**** Oma?**

With a massive effort, Daniel wrenched his thoughts away. Think of the paperwork sitting on your desk ...

Remember mom tickling his ribs that last night … . No …

Remember that last bumpy flight to Peru.

What if Anubis was going through_ all_ of his memories. There were some that he didn't want to share with anyone let alone Anubis …

He risked a glance around and he didn't know if it was vertigo or if the tornado was spinning him around, but he felt like the room was twirling around beneath him. He coughed weakily – deep hacking coughs. His eyes stung and streamed more tears with all of the grit in it. The constant pounding of the tornado against his body was overwhelming, and he struggled weakly - reflexively against it. His whole body ached with blinding pain. He didn't know why he was still conscious. He coughed up thick phlem, turned his head and spat it out.

Nausea. He didn't need to think about how much he wanted to puke right now either …

Think of your nice warm bed at home. Damn, it had been a long time since he'd last slept in it. He'd been working too ….

"**Daniel Jac …"**

Daniel fled – though it was getting harder to do. His head ached, and it was getting harder to focus.

Think of playing baseball with SG-1 and SG-2 against the Marines …

Think of his loaded dishwasher at home. He really should get around to emptying the thing.

Man, he could use a big glass of ice water about now. But how the hell to drink it …

"**Daniel Jackson, we …"**

Remember his first pair of glasses. Maybe he should consider laser eye surgery …

How was he going to get out of this one with his sanity intact? …

Think of Jack's birthday party …

He didn't know how much longer he was going to last up here. What if he passed out? Fear! Yup, now that was a familiar feeling …

"**Please, Daniel Jackson …"**

Daniel coughed hard, setting his side ablaze with pain. He could feel Anubis coming for him – like a dark shroud swooping closer … and for a moment, he blanked out completely as his mind seemed to turn inside out … . He was concentrating on his blood vessels - taking the tiny torn tubes and putting them back together again, encouraging cells to repair, manipulating …

Daniel fled again, frightened beyond belief. That _hadn't_ been one of his memories! What the hell was going on? Had he somehow picked up on Anubis's memories? He opened his grit filled eyes and saw Teal'c below making his way around the edge of the room carrying a riot shield and wearing goggles.

"Teal'c!" Teal'c, get me down!" screamed Daniel, and he broke into a fit of ragged hacking coughs.

Teal'c looked up at him.

"Please Teal'c," began Daniel and then he thought again. Anubis would have no hesitation in killing his friend. Daniel remembered the large bloody streak on the observation window. "No, no don't … Teal'c, comprom … .," he tried to tell Teal'c to stay away, but he was losing himself – feeling himself slide irrevocably towards unconsciousness. "It hurts, please!" he cried out to Teal'c or to the memory of Sha're or to whatever was in his head – Daniel would never know …

Something caught his spiralling consciousness. Something softened the fall and abruptly everything was … vastly alien.

"**No, stay Daniel Jackson, the Anubis comes …"**

Daniel struggled back from unconsciousness with difficulty and tried for another memory but this time the presence he sensed came with him …. _He was injured – badly injured and everything was orange around him…_

Daniel made an effort to break free but he was too tightly caught and so tired …

…_Lying on the sand ... Jack yelling at him … "There's gonna be a bit of pain for a few minutes. Okay? It's just for a few minutes. You are NOT going to die, Daniel. Hear me? That's a direct order. You hang on Daniel, no matter what!"_

_Breathing in – something getting inside of him. Daniel's eyes snapped open in pure terror and pain ripped through him in one long agonisingly crushing blow. He tried to cough out what had gotten into him …_

"**This was us, little one. We healed you when you were damaged on our world. We heal your hurts now, too."**

Daniel struggled to free himself. Panic!

"**Calmly! We are within you now, little one. The Anubis captured us as well. We seek to protect you and we ask for your co-operation."**

Fire in his side!

"**Quickly, repair the damage, it weakens the Daniel too much." **

"**Teacher, it comes closer!"**

Dark shroud coming closer with a sense of frustration and fury …

"**Do as I have shown you."**

Broken bones. Two rib bones and another was cracked as well. There were in fact several cracks along the bone and many damaged and torn blood vessels. As he watched, an orange substance leaked from his blood vessels and washed over the bone and he could feel the crack being repaired as marrow was urged inward and his cells were sent …

Daniel's eyes snapped open. Oh God. God in heaven. There were _other_ creatures inside of him besides Anubis. Other … things. Orange things of some kind – like the tornado … Abruptly everything made sense to Daniel. Yeah, there was a war going on inside of him – but it seemed that he had allies. Unless … unless that was what Anubis wanted him to think. Daniel felt a wave of intense fear sweep through him. Maybe it was all a ploy to get him to let his guard down.

If he believed what he was being told, then he was in the biggest mess that he'd been in since … well, since the last time that he'd died. But he'd gone far beyond trusting every little thing that he was told these days. Far beyond believing that there were beings in the universe that would help another out of the goodness in their proverbial hearts. And Anubis would certainly have a motive for making him drop his guard.

"**We have sent out envoys to ask for assistance in defeating the Anubis one. Observe, within the glassed area there." **

Daniel found himself squinting towards the observation window, and saw more orange tornados in the conference room, and Jack and Sam were there amongst others and they weren't panicking at all.

"I … You're inside of me? A tornado?"

"**In fact there are eight of us within you, little one. We seek to protect you from the Anubis one. We are indeed your allies in this war within your body, Daniel Jackson."**

"Why …," Daniel stopped. He blinked open exhausted eyes and saw that Teal'c was gazing up at him – listening to him talk, seemingly to himself. It was so hard to concentrate, hard to stay conscious at all let alone hold a coherent conversation. He wanted to explain to Teal'c about what was going on but he didn't seem to have the energy to spare.

"**Please, trust us."**

This voice was different than the other one had been. Daniel blinked one more time towards the observation room. It was so near yet seemingly so far away. "What do you need me to do?" he said out loud – for want of another way of communicating to them without Anubis being in on the conversation – although Daniel didn't know if that was true either. Damn, it was all so weird and alien and he didn't have the strength for any of it. All that he really did know was that he didn't have much time left and no help was coming from anywhere else. "What do you need me to do?" he asked again with more determination.

_**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**_

Jack bit his lip as he looked one more time through the observation window at Daniel. He didn't think there would be a single spot on his friends' body that wasn't battered black and blue by now – unless of course it was covered with blood, cuts and gashes. Somehow Daniel was still conscious. Somehow he was still alive – and he'd be hoping to be rescued any second now. After all, he wasn't on some other planet so far away that you could barely see it through a telescope, he was on home territory – in the middle of the SGC that was filled with people on his side, within clear sight of some of his teammates and his best damned friend. Jack had never felt so helpless in his life.

"So, what do you think Carter?"

Sam looked back at him with eyes that were beginning to take on that haunted look that she had had when Daniel had been dying of radiation poisoning. "If you're asking for my recommendation sir, then I don't think we have any other real options. I'd suggest that the sooner we get started the better it will be for everyone concerned. I'd like to go along."

"We can guarantee the safety of only two beings other that the Daniel Jackson," said one of the tornados.

Jack nodded briskly. It was ultimately his decision – a decision that might well cost him the life of his best friend but they had clearly run out of time and since there really weren't any other plans on the table. "Okay, we go with Teacher's idea, and Teal'c and Carter go along. Carter, gear up as quickly as possible. Teal'c?"

"I have understood the plan, O'Neill. I will attempt to return Daniel Jackson safely."

Jack nodded gratefully although he knew Teal'c couldn't see. "Keep him safe, Teal'c."

"I shall, O'Neill."

"Okay, I guess we get this show on the road. Do you two need anything?"

"We do not."

"We will give you guys thirty minutes and then another team will be sent through to help out."

"Acceptable."

_**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**_

Teal'c kept careful watch as the two tornados came into the Gate room ahead of Samantha Carter. The darker tornado holding onto Daniel Jackson did not react to their presence, and Daniel Jackson gave no indication that he was aware of them. Teal'c hoped that O'Neill would ensure that their part in the plan was initiated as quickly as possible. Daniel Jackson's body was barely moving now, and Teal'c could hardly recognise his friend beneath the many cuts and livid bruises that he now bore.

Teal'c watched as the two smaller tornados moved around the Gate room, lifting aside debris and spiralling into each body that they encountered. Teal'c hoped each time they entered a body that somehow the mangled remains might be healed. His own previously unremembered memory of a tornado spiralling into his own damaged body had returned with the images he was now watching. He remembered well what it had felt like to have the orange tornado within him and it was all that he could do not to shudder with revulsion at the unpleasant experience. He also remembered that the orange substance had remarkable healing abilities.

There. An Airman was moving weakly as one of the tornados emerged.

Teal'c hurried over the debris to help the Airman to his feet. "O'Neill, I am escorting a survivor towards the main blast door," he announced into his radio. He glanced up at the observation window in time to see several people hurrying into action and O'Neill waving him onward. He shielded the man with the riot shield and his own body and handed the man through to the other side of the blast door before crouching down low again to observe. Altogether, the orange entities were indeed powerful healers, he would rather spend six months within the infirmary healing slowly and painfully on his own than allow himself to be healed by them. He remembered it was highly painful to be healed by the orange entities. Every inch of him had felt violated and it had taken him a long time to realise that he had not been peeled open from the inside out …

"Chevron one locked," said Walter's voice over the loud speakers.

Finally, thought Teal'c with relief. He risked one more glance upward towards his team mate. Daniel Jackson's movements were weaker now than they had appeared even moments ago, and his eyes had closed.

"The tornado with Daniel in it hasn't budged, Carter," said Jack speaking through the radio. "Stay safe."

"Will do sir, and we'll bring Daniel home," said Carter's voice.

"Chevron two locked."

"Okay, let me through," said Carter's voice.

Teal'c watched as the blast door opened once again. An Airman handed him his staff weapon and a gas mask which Teal'c quickly fitted over his head in place of the visor.

"Chevron three locked."

Samantha Carter slipped into the room wearing her own gas mask and carrying a back pack and her weapon.

The blast doors closed again.

"Chevron four locked."

One of the tornados moved closer to them, blocking them off from the tornado holding Daniel and obviously standing guard over them.

"Chevron five locked."

Teal'c glanced back up through the observation window. "We are ready, O'Neill," he murmured over the radio."

"God speed, Teal'c."

"Chevron six locked."

The other tornado blended back with the large one holding Daniel for a few moments before separating again.

The Gate opened with a whoosh, instantly obliterating all of the debris caught within the plasma wake. A white gas began seeping in via the SGC vents and quickly started filling the room. At the same time the two smaller tornados began pushing at the larger one. Both of the smaller tornados were rotating in the opposite direction and were eating away at the power and velocity of the large one.

Daniel's eyes snapped open. "Wh … what?"

"Sorry Daniel, I'm so sorry," said Jack's regretful voice over the intercom. "But since we can't get you out and we can't have Anubis possessing anyone else, we're going to incinerate everything in that room. The gas is highly flammable you see, so unless Anubis goes through that Gate in the next thirty seconds, I'm afraid that's it, buddy, oh and you won't have time to ascend either. Once we light it up you won't have time to blink, let alone ascend. I'm sorry buddy, really sorry. It should be quick and relatively painless, and I know that you would be the first one to tell me that it has to be done."

Daniel opened his mouth to reply but started coughing instead, heaving hacking coughs that left him breathless. It was the sound of regret that was in Jack's voice that convinced him. That military mind set that had always and would always put the safety of Earth first over anyone and anything. Daniel closed his eyes and braced himself for pain. He was going to be burned to death. Burned alive, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He wished that he had the strength to ask his friends to turn away. He didn't want them to watch him die - again.

The larger tornado shrank down and Daniel dropped lower. There was an incredible surge of anger that nearly tore Daniel's sanity to pieces. Then he and the tornado holding him flew through the open Gate.

_**SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG**_


	12. Chapter 12

Teal'c and Sam leapt over the debris littering the Gate room and followed the tornado holding Daniel through the Gate, escorted by the two smaller tornados.

Teal'c gripped Sam's arm as soon as they stepped through and drew her protectively to one side of the Gate. The tornado with Daniel was positioned beside the DHD.

Sam whipped out her radio right away. "We've arrived safely, General. The hostile seems to be waiting for the Gate to shut down."

"Acknowledged, Carter. A radio signal will be sent through to keep the Gate open for as long as possible."

"That will suffice," said one of the smaller tornados. "See there, our Guardians approach."

"Guardians?" asked Carter, looking toward a large mass of orange cloud that defied the breeze and came rapidly toward them.

"There have been many travellers to our world. We have found it necessary to guard our Gate at all times."

Teal'c nodded approvingly. "A wise precaution."

The tornado carrying Daniel stretched and expanded reaching nearly a hundred and fifty feet in height. In moments Daniel's body became a barely seen speck in the distance and the wind had picked up strongly enough to threaten the people on the ground. Sand whipped up into the air and the howling of the tornado was almost deafening. Teal'c wrapped an arm around Carter and anchored her to the ground. In moments the two escort tornados joined together and surrounded them, protecting them within the eye of their rotation – the sudden change in air pressure had Sam covering her ears with a wince of pain.

One by one, smaller tornados began breaking free from the tornado holding Daniel. Some of them immediately turned into orange tinged clouds and rapidly drifted off to join with the Guardian mass.

The tornado with Daniel in it grew darker and darker as it lost each of the tornados within it and it shrank down again. Daniel's limp body began rotating faster and faster within the vortex. The tornado began moving rapidly across the sandy plain, and then came back again as the Guardian cloud expanded ahead of it at unbelievable speed and quickly formed into a vast tornado hundreds of miles wide with Daniel and everyone near the Gate in the centre of its eye. A distant howling sound began to almost vibrate in the air around them.

Teal'c had rarely felt awe. But to see such a sight was nearly unbelievable. He doubted that Master Bra'tak would believe this tale. They stood within the protective bounds of a tornado's eye yet they were also within the eye of another tornado that stretched many miles across. He had never encountered nor heard of an intelligent entity that could manage such a feat.

Carter wrenched her eyes from the amazing scene around her and found herself gritting her teeth hard as she watched Daniel's battered body spin around. She hoped that he was only unconscious now and not dead. But he rolled around in the tornado like a limp rag doll and she itched to move closer and snatch him back down – if only she could reach up to him where he was some forty feet into the air.

The air around them slowly changed colour as the outer tornado contracted inward. Soon the air changed into a dense orange atmosphere. Carter realised that the 'orangeaide' like atmosphere was close to her but not quite touching her – as if it held intelligence of its own.

A new voice spoke – a thunderously loud voice that seemed to come from all directions making the ground vibrate. "Release your captives immediately."

Teal'c shook his head. "Anubis will not willingly give up any captive without a fight."

"This is our world," replied their escort. "The Anubis will obey or be destroyed. He cannot prevail against us."

Carter could see the edge of the outer tornado contracting inward at unbelievable speed. All too quickly the atmosphere around them became so dense that she could barely see Daniel. The orange air pressed on her – squeezing from all sides yet she knew that within their protective circle she was only lightly affected compared to what Daniel was experiencing.

Daniel let out a wail of pain that died back to gasps as he was slowly being crushed. He struggled for breath, gasping like a landed fish under the pressure and managed one final desperate gasp. Then the pressure he was experiencing grew stronger and breathing became impossible. He had only a moment to feel the panic of air deprivation and then he passed out.

Suddenly his limp body seemed to freeze within the vortex and then was flung powerfully through the orange air straight towards the shimmering blue open Gate.

"Shut down the Gate," yelled Carter into her radio. "Shut down …"

Teal'c took three rapid running steps and leaped through the tornado sheltering him. He watched Daniels' body fly through the air and leapt managing to snatch Daniels' limp forearm. There was no other choice then but to yank his friends body straight down hard to stop his momentum from carrying both of them into the deadly field of the Gate. Even above the sound of all the tornados, Teal'c could hear the snapping of bones in his friends arm. Daniel Jackson lay still – unaware of the damage that he had received. Belatedly the Gate shut down behind them.

Daniels' body was barely recognizable beneath the bruising and cuts. Carter scrambled across to him and was immediately feeling for a pulse.

Teal'c stood guard over his two team mates. He braced himself for the words that would tell him that he had lost one of his greatest friends while he watched the dark mass that was Anubis release the last tornado.

Once Anubis was alone again the orange atmosphere condensed around the black mass until Teal'c could see only a solid wall of an orange substance.

"The Anubis will be contained until a judgement can be made for that ones crimes against us."

Teal'c took a half step towards the wall encasing Anubis. "I would suggest permanent incarceration if …"

"Teal'c, dial the Gate. Daniel's barely alive," said Carter.

"We will heal the Daniel."

Carter's head snapped up. "Can you? He's got internal damage, there are multiple fractures and he's had Anubis inside of his head. I know you can heal physical damage but I don't know what kind of mental damage Anubis might have done in there. Can you heal the kind of damage done to a human mind?"

"We will not permit the Daniel one to suffer or to die – or to re-ascend if we can prevent it. But we must act now, whilst there is life within the Daniel one."

Carter nodded. "Please, help him. Just don't … don't hurt him too much."

Sam watched as orange air condensed and spiralled into Daniels' body. Even unconscious, Daniels' body arched up off the ground as the stuff entered through his nose and mouth. She wanted to turn her head away. She could feel a shudder run up the length of her body as she remembered that the orange substance had 'healed' her like this once– and that she never wanted to experience that sort of healing again, but her anxiety for Daniel overrode her own memories of the awful experience. She watched as cuts turned orange and sealed and disappeared one after another. Daniels' bruises faded to green, then yellow and then to nothing all within seconds. His laboured breathing changed rhythm slowly and steadily and suddenly his eyes snapped open. He looked right at her and there was full blown panic in them.

"Anubis!" he mouthed, almost voicelessly.

"It's okay Daniel, Anubis is gone!" she told him.

Daniel didn't seem to hear her. His body thrashed and writhed and suddenly stiffened. His eyes rolled back and he slumped, unconscious to the ground.

"Daniel? Daniel?" For a second Sam was sure that he was dead. But as she lifted a hand to check for a pulse the orange substance started pouring from his mouth until it had all emerged.

"We have healed the Daniels' injuries."

Sam shook her head, "You have? He's unconscious."

"It is not the injuries that are responsible for this state."

Sam ran a hand over Daniel's face. "He's dehydrated and he's running a high fever. He was coming down with something when Anubis attacked, and being battered and God only knows what else won't have helped at all. We need to take him home."

"Then do so. But perhaps, the Daniel Jackson could return once he is repaired?"

Sam looked up in surprise. "You want us to come back? I thought you didn't like contact with humans."

"He alone is welcome to return if he so wishes. We would like to explore his memories of ascension if he would permit it. We have learned much from our blending with him. He has a gentle yet stimulating nature. We … like … the Daniel Jackson one."

Teal'c bent to lift Daniel's body up and cradle him carefully in his arms.

Sam sidled over to the DHD. "We'll let him know about the invitation once he's well again. Um … thanks … for helping him, and ah about Anubis…."

"We will conduct our own judgement regarding that one's crimes."

"Right," said Sam and with one more worried glance towards Daniel's battered form she started dialling home.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel awoke feeling so sore all over that for a moment he was convinced that he was still plastered to the ceiling with a tornado under him and Anubis in his head. Man, he felt awful. His head throbbed in time with his heart beat and he could barely draw the strength to breathe. It took more than a few blinks of his eyes before he registered the infirmary and Teal'c hovering beside him.

"Daniel Jackson!" said Teal'c with a worried voice.

Daniel wanted to answer. He wanted to reassure Teal'c that he was fine but everything slipped away from him.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Dr Warner's face came into view blearily at one stage just as a needle was being inserted into his sore hand, but the effort of keeping his eyes open was overwhelming and he tumbled back into unconsciousness dreaming of orange air and crushing pain.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Sam's voice droned in the background.

Daniel managed to blink at her once or twice. His head ached and his chest felt too tight.

She was reading to him. Something about … string theory …

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Anubis was in his head – stealing his mind. Stealing memories. He struggled against him with all that he had and opened eyes to see Teal'c's worried gaze. Teal'c was talking above him but Daniel couldn't seem to make sense of the words …

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel looked wildly around the infirmary "Anubis?" Daniel whispered with a throat as dry as paper.

"He's gone. You're safe, Daniel. You're in the infirmary," said Sam.

Daniel blinked at her a few times and a nurse came in with some ice chips in a cup.

Daniel sucked on a spoonful of them, feeling the cold delicious wetness slide over the paper tightness of his throat.

Sam was watching him anxiously and Daniel wanted to say something to reassure her. But the simple effort of melting the ice chips in his mouth was as wearying as a marathon. Daniel was asleep before the last ice chip had melted.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

When he awoke again the infirmary was much darker and Jack's feet were on the bed.

Jack looked up from the report he was flipping through. "Hey there, Daniel. You with me this time?"

Daniel frowned back at him. "If the nurses catch you with your feet there they'll give you painful injections for a year."

Jack smiled at him with more than a little relief showing in his face. He dropped his feet back onto the floor and scooted his chair closer. "You had us worried there, Daniel."

"Sorry," said Daniel. "There wasn't much I could do about it."

"There wasn't much anyone could do – not against that puff ball Anubis."

Daniel shivered a little and tried to make it look like a shrug.

"How are you doing, Daniel?"

Daniel drew in a slow breath. "I'm gonna have nightmares, I think."

Jack guffawed. "Ya think?"

Daniel lifted a hand to rub at his sore head. "I suppose I should be used to aliens in my head by now."

"I think that that one safely goes onto the list of things that one never gets used to," said Jack.

"Yeah," said Daniel simply.

"You made some new friends by the way," said Jack.

"Huh?"

"The orangeaid stuff. They've taken a liking to you and want to see you again to explore your ascension memories with you."

Daniel winced. "Actually Jack, I'd really rather not."

Jack nodded. "I didn't think you would. It's a lot to stomach - having that stuff inside of you," he paused drinking in the sight of his friend again. "Damn, you had us worried Daniel."

"You weren't the only one. You know how I hate heights."

Jack blinked at him. "You had a tornado tossing you around and Anubis in your head plus half a dozen other aliens and you were more worried about the height problem?"

"It was the ceiling of the Gate room Jack. It's pretty damned high you know – something you wouldn't appreciate unless you were plastered up there without anything to hold onto."

"Right," said Jack doubtfully. "Warner has a barrage of tests organised for the next day or so but how do you feel about a game of chess at my place this Thursday night?"

"Thursday?" Wasn't it Thursday when this whole thing started?"

"Yeah. Your requisitions forms went through too and your supplies arrived at your office this morning."

Daniel's eyes widened. "I can't have been out of things for that long. What's the date, Jack?"

"It's the 22nd of December."

"Two weeks? Iv'e been sleeping for two entire weeks?" said Daniel with complete disbelief.

Jack shrugged. "Told you you had us worried. You slipped into a coma there for a while. Warner said you almost died despite what the orangeaide stuff did for your injuries. Seems dehydration, chest infections, being invaded by multiple aliens _and_ getting battered to a pulp all on the one day aren't that good for ones overall well being."

Daniel let out a long slow breath of air. "But … two whole _weeks_?"

"Well," there was the swelling in your brain from all that alien matter in there. Dr Warner put you back into a drug induced coma until that settled down. Then the chest infection turned into pneumonia …"

"Alright, two weeks then. Which means I'll have a backlog of work as tall as Teal'c in my office."

"Nuh uh," said Jack. "The rest of your department divided it all up and have been dealing with it. You only need to check and sign off on things when you're back from medical leave."

"Medical leave - on top of the two weeks." Daniel let out a frustrated sigh. "Jack I can't … ." He sighed resignedly. "How long?"

"Oh – you've got ten days or so including Christmas at my house with Sam and Teal'c."

Daniel's eyebrows lifted. "Oh. Christmas … at your place?"

Jack smiled. "Actually, it's gonna be _the_ best team Christmas at my place ever. Ten whole days of it. I've got a tree and ornaments and a turkey this big," said Jack stretching his hands wide. "And since every team is back on Earth bar two we should have no interruptions whatsoever."

Daniel couldn't help but smile back. "We'll have to stop by my place to pick up some presents."

Jack nodded. "No sweat. Teal'c is as excited as a three year old. He's been checking recipes and everything. He's bringing along desert, and Sam keeps hinting about the awesome gifts she's got for us."

Daniel settled back against the pillows suddenly feeling a little tired again, but … strangely relaxed. "Thanks Jack," he murmured.

Jack bent and ruffled his hair. "You get yourself better, Daniel. Christmas isn't going to be Christmas without you."

Daniel smiled on his way to sleep. Real sleep this time, with real friends and Christmas to look forward to. No way was he going to miss that.

**_SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG_**

**_There's been very little interest in this story of late so rather than making it longer I felt it best to simply end it and move on to other interests. Thanks to all those who took the time to review. _**


End file.
